Petroleum & Coal

ISSN 1337-7027
Available online at www.vurup.sk/pc
Petroleum & Coal 51 (1), 27-32, 2009

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF GAS HOLD-UP AND BUBBLE BEHAVIOR

IN GAS LIQUID BUBBLE COLUMN
Behnoosh Moshtari1, Ensieh Ganji Babakhani2, Jafar Sadegh Moghaddas1
1

Chemical Engineering Department, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz,

2
Iran Research Institute Of Petroleum Industry, Tehran, Iran
Received September 9, 2008, accepted January 7, 2009

Abstract
Experimental reactor was a cylindrical bubble-column made of glass, with an inside diameter of 15cm
and a height of 2.8(m). The column was equipped with two types of sparger, a porous plate and a
perforated plate with the same porosity. In this study, liquid phase and gas phase were water and air
respectively. Gas hold up, bubble size and effect of sparger type in different gas velocity were
investigated. Gas hold up was determined with differential pressure method and used to estimate the
transition velocity in slurry bubble column reactors. The results showed that with increasing the
superficial gas velocity, the total gas hold up increases. Also perforated -type sparger increases the
diameter of bubbles up to 35% and decreases gas hold up to about 40% respectively. Also it was
found that the Hikitas correlation predicts the gas hold up value better than other presented
correlations in this system.
Keywords: Gas hold up; Bubble column; Bubble size; Sparger

1. Introduction
Bubble columns are contactors in which a discontinues gas phase in the form of bubbles
moves relative to a continues phase. The continues phase can be liquid or homogeneous
slurry [1]. Bubble column reactors are used in diverse application such as absorption,
catalytic relation, bio reaction and coal liquefaction [2]. This reactors offer many advantages
over other kinds of multiphase reactors: simple construction, no mechanically moving parts,
good heat and mass transfer properties, high thermal stability, good mixing, low power
requirements and hence low construction and operating cost [3]. Most studies have shown
that there are two basic flow regimes in bubble columns, homogeneous and heterogeneous
[4-6]
. When a column filled with a liquid is sparged with gas, the bed of liquid begins to
expand homogeneously and the bed height increases almost linearly with the superficial
gas velocity. This regime of operation in a bubble column is called the homogeneous bubbly
flow regime. As the gas velocity is increased, the gas hold up, g increases and at a certain
gas velocity, Utransition, coalescence of the bubbles takes place to produce first fast-rising
large bubble. The appearance of first large bubble changes the hydrodynamic picture
dramatically. The regime of operating for superficial gas velocity exceeding Utransition is
commonly referred to as heterogeneous or churn turbulent regime [7-9]. This regime is of
importance in industrial reactor operation [10]. Gas hold up is one of the most important
parameters characterizing the hydrodynamics of bubble columns [11]. It can be defined as
the percentage by volume of the gas in the two or three phase mixture in the column. Gas
hold up depends mainly on the superficial gas velocity [1]. Other important parameter that
has a strong influence on the hydrodynamic behavior is bubble size distribution. The large

Behnoosh Moshtari et al./Petroleum & Coal 51(1) 22-28 (2009)

28

gas bubbles rise quickly through the column than small bubbles. Therefore the gas
residence time decrease and cause to reduce the total gas hold up [3,10,12].
The relation between superficial gas velocity and gas sparger type with gas hold-up are
important designing parameters to predicting the hydrodynamic behavior of slurry bubblecolumn reactors. According to different reported correlations, distinguishing the best
correlation is the most important factor for scaling up the slurry bubble-column reactors. A
large number of correlation for gas hold up have been proposed in the literature [13-15], but
the large scatter in the reported data dose not allow a single correlation. In the present
work, the effect of superficial gas velocity and sparger type on gas hold up and bubble size
distribution in bubble column reactor have studied, and the best correlation for predicting
the hydrodynamic behavior on bubble column reactors is suggested.
2. Experimental set up
Experimental set up consists of a cylindrical glass column with 15cm inner diameter and
2.8 m height. The column is equipped with two spargers in bottom, a perforated plate and a
porous plate, both with 0.1 % porosity. Designing of perforated plate is based on Weber
number, this sparger consist of 19 holes with 1 mm diameter. There are several techniques
to measure the gas hold up and bubble size distributions such as: pressure drop
measurements, radiation, optical fiber probes, particle image velocimetry (PIV), computer
tomography (CT), and photographic method [11]. In all experiences the pressure at top of the
column was atmospheric. Gas injected from bottom of the column. After injecting gas, the
liquid bed expended and the hydrostatic pressure is change. With measuring the differential
pressure through the column, the total gas hold up can be determined. For measuring the
differential pressure through the column, a monometer is used, and for measuring bubble
size distribution the photographic method is used. The liquid phase is water and gas phase is
air. In figure 1 the experimental set up is showed.
3. Result and Discussion
3. 1 Effect of Superficial Gas Velocity on Gas Hold-up
In this study the gas hold up have been measured at different superficial gas velocity,
with differential pressure method, the results are shown in Figure 2. All the experiences
show the positive effect of superficial gas velocity on gas hold up. This positive effect has
been shown in the most published studies [16,11,17]. The homogeneous regime occurs at low
gas flow, and turns into the heterogeneous regime at high gas flow. At low superficial gas
velocity, the bubble size is small and uniform and bubble travel upwards in a helical path
without any major collision or coalescence. With increasing the superficial gas velocity the
bubbles are coalescenced therefore at high superficial gas velocity (more than about 9 cm/s)
all the bubbles will be large [4,13,18]. The large bubbles have higher rise velocity than small
bubbles, therefore residence time of large bubbles decrease and cause to decrease rate of
increasing gas hold up. Krishna et al.[19] showed same result in Air-Tellus oil system. The
transition from homogeneous to heterogeneous regime is observed at a superficial gas
velocity between 0.9 to 0.11 m/s. The transition superficial gas velocity reported 0.1 m/s by
Iordache et al. [20]. The dependence of the gas hold up on gas velocity is generally of the
below form [21-22]:

g= Ugn

(1)

where: g : gas hold up, Ug : superficial gas velocity

The value of n depends on the flow regime. In homogeneous flow regime, the value of n
varies from 0.7 to 1.2 and in the churn- turbulent regime g is weaker function of Ug , and n

varies from 0.4 to 0.7. The value of n is strongly dependent on operating variables, physical
properties of the system, as well as the design characteristics of the column [1,4,21]. In this
study the value of n and calculated in homogeneous and heterogeneous flow regimes.

Behnoosh Moshtari et al./Petroleum & Coal 51(1) 22-28 (2009)

29

g=0,450 ug0.954 homogeneous flow regime

(2)

g=1,335 ug0.449 heterogeneous flow regime

(3)

Many correlations for predicting gas hold up can be found in literatures. Table 1 shows
some of these correlations. The comparison between measured and predicted gas hold up
values are illustrated in Fig 3 and 4: It can be seen that Haikita s correlation is better than
other correlations for estimating gas hold up.
Table 1 Predicted correlations
Author

Correlation

Hikita et al.

G = 0.672 uG0.574 l0.069 g0.062 0.185 l 0.053 g0.107 g 0.131

[13]

Hugmark et al.

[14]

Hikita & Kikukaw

Reily et al.

[23]

[24]

Kumar et al.

[15]

G = 1 / [ 2 + ( 0 .35 / uG )( l / 72 )

= 0 . 505 U
= 2 9 6U

0 . 47
g

0 .4 4
G

0 . 072

2
L

0 . 001

)g

1
2

G0 . 1 9 + 0 . 0 0 9

+ 0 .0 9 7 5 U

) 0 . 05

0 .9 8
L 0 .1 6
L

G = 0 .7 2 8 U 0 .4 8 5 U
U

)2/3 (

1/3

Fig 1 Experimental set up

Fig 2 Effect of superficial gas velocity on gas

hold up in air-water system

Fig 3 Comparison between predicted value

and experimental data of gas hold-up

Fig 4 Comparison between correlations and

experimental data

Behnoosh Moshtari et al./Petroleum & Coal 51(1) 22-28 (2009)

30

3.2 Effect of Sparger type on Gas Hold-up and Bubble size.

In this study two different spargers are used: Perforated plate and porous plate bothwith
0.1% porosity [Fig 5].

Fig 5 Two sparger types are used in the

experimental set up

Fig 6 Bubble size distribution

Designing of perforated plate is based on Weber number. According to Mersmann [25], a

We>2 is necessary to assure bubble breakage and axial mixing in the liquid. The Weber
number for gas is given as follow:
We=

gUG ,o do

Where

G UG2 ,o Dc4

(4)

No2 do

No - number of openings on sparger

G - gas density

UG,o - gas velocity from orifice

- surface tension

do - orifice diameter

Dc-

column diameter

The orifice diameter of perforated plate is 1 mm and the porous plate consists of micro
size pores. The initial bubble size and distribution at the orifice could be controlled by the
sparger characteristics. Fig 6 shows the bubble size distribution at 2.9 cm/s of superficial
gas velocity with different spargers. The sauters mean bubble diameter was calculated with
following equation [26]:
d32

i
N

di3

(5)

d2
i 1 i

With using equation (5) the Sauters mean bubble diameter in system equipped with
perforated plate is 6.23 mm and in system equipped with porous plate is 5.71 mm.
Krishna et al. [19] shows that Vb db (Vb -bubble velocity, db -bubble diameter), therefore
system equipped with porous plate, the bubble size is smeller, Vb is lower, and the gas hold
up is higher. The large bubbles have higher rise velocity than small bubbles, and the
residence time decreases and cause to decrease gas hold up. Fig 7 shows the effect of

Behnoosh Moshtari et al./Petroleum & Coal 51(1) 22-28 (2009)

31

sparger type on gas hold up. It should be mentioned that gas hold up depends on the break
up and coalescence of the gas bubbles in the column. Porous plate with smaller pore
diameters, have been found to generate smaller gas bubbles when compared to perforated
plate [27]. Therefore the gas hold up in system that equipped with porous plate at high
superficial gas velocity is approximately 40% higher than system equipped with perforated
plate.

Fig 7 Effect of sparger type on gas hold up

4. Conclusion
The influence of superficial gas velocity and sparger type on gas hold up in bubble column
has been studied. Experimental data shows that the total gas hold up is increased with
increasing superficial gas velocity. The initial bubble size is depended on sparger type. The
large bubbles have higher rise velocity and decrease the gas hold up. Also it is found that
the Hikitas correlation predicted the gas hold up value better than other presented
correlations.
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